Evolution's Empress: Darwinian Perspectives on the Nature of Women

by Maryanne L. Fisher (Editor), Justin R. Garcia (Editor), Rosemarie Sokol Chang (Editor)

Over the last decade, there has been increasing debate as to whether feminism and evolutionary psychology can co-exist. Such debates often conclude with a resounding "no," often on the grounds that the former is a political movement while the latter is a field of scientific inquiry. In the midst of these debates, there has been growing dissatisfaction within the field of evolutionary psychology about the way the discipline (and others) have repeatedly shown women to be in passive roles when it comes to survival and reproduction. Evolutionary behavioral research has made significant strides in the past few decades, but continues to take for granted many theoretical assumption that are perhaps, in light of the most recent evidence, misguided. As a result, the research community has missed important areas of research, and in some cases, will likely come to inaccurate conclusions based on existing dogma, rather than rigorous, theoretically driven research. Bias in the field of evolutionary psychology echoes the complaints against the political movement attached to academic feminisms. This is an intellectual squabble where much is at stake, including a fundamental understanding of the evolutionary significance of women's roles in culture, mothering, reproductive health and physiology, mating, female alliances, female aggression, and female intrasexual competition.

Evolution's Empress identifies women as active agents within the evolutionary process. The chapters in this volume focus on topics as diverse as female social interactions, mate competition and mating strategies, motherhood, women's health, sex differences in communication and motivation, sex discrimination, and women in literature. The volume editors bring together a diverse range of perspectives to demonstrate ways in which evolutionary approaches to human behavior have thus far been too limited. By reconsidering the role of women in evolution, this volume furthers the goal of generating dialogue between the realms of women's studies and evolutionary psychology.

Contents:
Women's intrasexual competition for mates / Maryanne L. Fisher --
The tangled web she weaves: the evolution of female-female aggression and status-seeking / Laurette Liesen --
Getting by with a little help from friends: the importance of social bonds for female primates / Liza R. Moscovice --
A sex-neutral theoretical framework for making strong inferences about the origins of sex roles / Patricia Adair Gowaty --
Mothers, traditions, and the human strategy to leave descendants / Kathryn Coe and Craig T. Palmer --
Maternal effect and offspring development / Nicole M. Cameron and Justin R. Garcia --
The evolution of flexible parenting / Lesley Newson and Peter J. Richerson --
Human attachment vocalizations and the expanding notion of nurture / Rosemarie Sokol Chang --
Fathers versus sons: why Jocasta matters / Laura Betzig --
Women's health at the crossroads of evolution and epidemiology / Chris Reiber --
Fertility: life history and ecological aspects / Bobbi S. Low --
Reproductive strategies in female postgenerative life / Johannes Johow, Eckart Voland, and Kai Willführ --
Now or later: peripartum shifts in female sociosexuality / Michelle Escasa-Dorne, Sharon M. Young, and Peter B. Gray --
Sexual conflict in white-faced capuchins: it's not whether you win or lose / Linda Fedigan and Katharine M. Jack --
The importance of female choice: evolutionary perspectives on constraints, expressions, and variations in female mating strategies / David A. Frederick, Tania A. Reynolds, and Maryanne L. Fisher --
Swept off their feet? Females' strategic mating behavior as a means of supplying the broom / Christopher J. Wilbur and Lorne Campbell --
Sex and gender differences in communication strategies / Elisabeth Oberzaucher --
A new view of evolutionary psychology using female priorities and motivations / Tami Meredith --
From reproductive resource to autonomous individuality? Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre / Nancy Easterlin --
The empress's clothes / Julie Seaman --
Consuming midlife motherhood: cooperative breeding and the 'disestablishment' of the biological clock / Michele Pridmore-Brown --
The quick and the dead: gendered agency in the history of western science and evolutionary theory / Leslie L. Heywood.

Genres: Psychology, Evolution, Gender, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Feminism, Biology

512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 2013

About the author

My primary research topic is the evolutionary foundations of human interpersonal relationships, and in particular, I have a long standing interest in female intrasexual competition. My other areas of study broadly include women’s mating strategies and indicators of female physical attractiveness. Some of my scholarship is devoted to exploring the intersection between feminist studies and evolutionary psychology. For more details, please refer to my publications.

Reviews

[Héctor]

This is a brilliant piece of work. I wish the study of Biology was a fundamental part of Gender Studies.

[Yanick Punter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoy this. I'm dreaming for more Darwinian perspectives and it becoming more normal.

I recommend watching this interview by the Dissenter with Maryanne Fisher:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BDOy...